Education: Why Johnny Can't Read

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How can the teaching of reading be improved? In essence, Author Flesch urges a return to the old phonetic method still used in Europe. Reading should be taught like shorthand, i.e., by writing and reading at the same time with "pure, unadulterated, old-fashioned drill" in the ABCs and the sounds they make. When the child can write each letter and knows its sound, he should go on to letter combinations. Moreover, the five-year-old can start right in on nursery tales and fables, e.g., Henny Penny and The House That Jack Built. With this "phonics" method, says Flesch, educators and parents will meet a problem all too few of them have handled in the last decade: how to keep up with a child's demands for books.